Druid / Monk AC bonus?

[Quartz]

Does a druid / monk retain (or gain) the Wis bonus to AC when wildshaped?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Does a druid / monk retain (or gain) the Wis bonus to AC when wildshaped?

Under Alternate Form (on which Wildshape is based, post-errata), class features are retained, so the AC Bonus feature still applies.

-Hyp.

 

[Quartz]

So generally a good move for a druid to take a level or two of monk, then. Cool.

 

[Christian]

So generally a good move for a druid to take a level or two of monk, then. Cool.

If you can stand being Lawful Neutral. Personally, I'd fall on my siangham.

 

[MarauderX]

So generally a good move for a druid to take a level or two of monk, then. Cool.

One is generally enough if you want to take advantage of the Wis AC bonus. Going further in monk is not the best strategy when you could be picking up more spell casting punch with another level of druid.

 

[blargney the second]

Two levels of swordsage would be an awful lot better, especially since you can get Weapon Focus(natural attacks)!

 

[Quartz]

If you can stand being Lawful Neutral. Personally, I'd fall on my siangham.

You only need to be LN while you're actually a Monk. And you can start as a LG monk and then become a NG druid.

A monk who becomes nonlawful cannot gain new levels as a monk but retains all monk abilities.

i.e. including the Wis bonus to AC.

 

[Quartz]

Two levels of swordsage would be an awful lot better, especially since you can get Weapon Focus(natural attacks)!

I don't know about that: two levels of monk gets you +3 in all saves, Improved Grapple, Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows, and Evasion, all of which are usable in animal form.

 

[DarkJester]

2 Levels of swordsage would net 7 maneuvers, wisdom bonus to ac, weapon focus: Claw, prof. with all martial weapons, 2 good saves. Though by RAW I believe the wisdom bonus to AC applies only when wearing light armor.

The maneuvers and stances you could grab could add quite a bit of versatility. I'd go with 2 sword sage levels over two monk levels, assuming the DM is okay with the wisdom bonus to AC applying without any armor (which makes sense, but is not supported).

Of course If I were only going to take 1 level I would take Monk.

 

[Hypersmurf]

My personal preference for Druids is the Swift and Deadly Hunter variant from UA, which gains Wis to AC as a druid class feature, among other things.

Of course, they give up Wildshape, so that would defeat your purpose here!

-Hyp.